In the digital age where every communication in business is email-based, Business Email Compromise has turned out to be perhaps the most heinous cyber threat and dearly costs its victims. BEC is not a purely technical attack on the business email system but a version of social engineering, targeting one’s psychological vulnerabilities and exploitation of trust. BECs present fraudulent individuals sneaking into legitimate business email accounts through phishing or malware to effect illegal transactions or steal confidential details.
What is Business Email Compromise?
BEC is a cybercrime targeting businesses and individuals who are performing wire transfers or dealing with large sums of money. The attackers generally pretend to be trusted individuals, either executives, vendors, or business partners, to deceive employees into transferring money or revealing sensitive information.
What’s subtle about BEC? It’s a deceiver, unlike ransomware or malware. No signs or signals of intrusion make it hard for anyone to realize something is off until it’s too late. No malware is usually involved; it’s more about carefully crafted emails that seem credible enough for suspicion.
Real-World Impact
The financial loss through BEC is drastic. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, BEC attacks have accounted for losses amounting to more than $43 billion worldwide from 2016 to 2022. The numbers indicate the drastic situation and why more robust cybersecurity measures are required to secure businesses from this advanced threat.
For example, a company involving technology was spoofed in 2020 to transfer over $100 million from its account to another overseas account after sending a BEC email that falsely claimed it was from one of their suppliers. That money proved nearly impossible to recover; the incident painfully reminded anyone that no business is too small or large to be unsusceptible to a BEC attack.
Common Types of BEC Attacks:
BEC attacks come in several forms, each of which is structured to take advantage of unique vulnerabilities:
- CEO Fraud: This attack comes in the form of taking on the identity of a top executive CEO or CFO, to name a few, and is used to instruct employees to transfer funds or sensitive information, often framed as some urgent request.
- Vendor Invoice Scam: Hackers use the identity of suppliers or vendors to send spoofed invoices demanding payment. In this case, an employee is more likely to initiate the transaction because it is from a trusted partner.
- Account Compromise: Hackers hijack an executive’s or employee’s email account to request fraudulent payments from an organization or its external partners.
- Attorney impersonation: In legal/financial matters, attackers pose as lawyers involved in confidential transactions and may advise employees to act quickly on sensitive issues.
- Theft of data: This attack variation requires an attacker to target departmental HR to obtain personal employee details. These details can also be used for future attacks/identity theft or get sold on the darknet.
How Does BEC Work?
BEC feeds on accuracy and timing. Hacking into a company’s email exchange with partners and employees for weeks or months, hackers will study the communication patterns, find the right people involved, and monitor payment activities, gathering enough information to mount a compelling attack.
Typical steps of most BEC attacks include:
Phishing or Spear Phishing: Hackers send a deceptive message to the inbox of the targeted employee. These messages mostly make use of legitimate business email domains or are sent through accounts that have been compromised. Usually, the messages cause panic, urging an instant transfer or action.
Access: After the phishing link has been clicked or malware has been downloaded, the attacker can listen to internal communications, modify invoices, and conduct unauthorized transactions.
They now send an email from the spoofed or compromised account to one of the finance team members requesting a wire transfer or asking for access to sensitive information, keeping the scam on.
How to Protect Against BEC
Although attacks against BEC are clever, businesses can prepare with various defensive measures to safeguard against these kinds of attacks:
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): This will be enforced on email login to prevent illegal access if credentials are obtained.
- Email Security Software: Deploy email security tools that recognize and block phishing attempts, suspicious attachments, and anomalous email behavior.
- Employee Training: Educate the employees frequently about BEC, phishing, and all other forms of social engineering. Educate them about exercising caution with emails related to financial transfers or sending sensitive information.
- Verify Transactions: Create a multi-step verification of large or unusual transactions where one calls the executive or vendor to verify the validity of the request.
- Monitor Suspicious Activity: Monitor rapid changes in email behavior by looking out for executives suddenly sending emails from unknown devices or requesting susceptible information.
- Use Encryption: Encrypt sensitive emails and data that the cybercriminals might intercept.
Conclusion
Business Email Compromise is a sophisticated and dangerous threat that needs a combination of vigilance, employee awareness, and technological safeguards. Organizations must continue to outstrip cybercriminals’ innovation by developing a culture of cybersecurity. In a more robust security environment, having regular training, verifying transparent processes, and being sure of these procedures would have a more significant effect on stopping BEC attacks. Being prepared in this constantly changing digital fraud world helps prevent such an event.
Keep your business on its feet by being informed and proactive- don’t let BEC be the compromise that derails your organization.
